“Lucky Stiff” Loosens up Crowd

The Misericordia Players presented “Lucky Stiff,” written by Lynn Ahrens, on April 2, 3, and 4 in the Lemmond Theater at Walsh Hall. Matthew Buckman, Bernadette Siudock, Rachel Thompson, John Lipka, David Swanson, Russell Heerkens, Alan Waclawski, Jeff Kelly, David Baker, Aimee DiLucido, and Kaila Augustine, all made the musical a brilliant performance worth more than the $3 it cost to get in.

The plot involves Witherspoon who, due to his supposed dead uncle’s $6 million inheritance, almost went from poor shoe salesman to rich man, otherwise known as a “lucky stiff.” Witherspoon ran into an obsessive dog lover, Annabel Glick, who was only interested in one thing -- the inheritance. A twisted sister, Rita, uncle’s lover, pulls her brother into her dog chase to get the same thing: the inheritance. This is a play about love, death, wills, Monte Carlo and, yes -- money.

“More students should have gone. It was right on campus, and I mean it was only $3. It was worth it, they did a great job,” said senior and Student Government Association President Josh Chaudoin.

The roles of the play were varied, which made the musical even more intriguing. “I was considered ensemble woman number one. I had seven different small parts in the show. The way the show is written, there are six lead, [and] one lead is the dead guy. The four others play all [of] the fill-in roles, so the four of us were several different roles,” said freshman Aimee DiLucido.

The varied sets also provided a lot of opportunity. “We had a bunch of set changes to do, so we had a lot more set pieces and that took up a lot more room back stage. It took more planning, [and] we had a sheet to assign when to move set pieces. But once we got into costumes, some people did not have time to follow what the sheet said. We had to do planning over and over again,” said DiLucido.

“The cast did a great job, the music was awesome, there were a lot of set changes, and they went over really well,” said Chaudoin.

DiLucido explained that there were several challenges students needed to overcome. The musical required performers to act while sets are being changed, and because the backstage area is tight on space, costuming and moving set pieces required effort.

Heerkens explained that the initial plans for the show were overly ambitious, but he saide the show’s outcome was good, although it came together quickly.

“We did the best we could,” said Heerkens.

According to DiLucido, Theater Director Don Hopkins and the Misericordia Players chose the musical. “I thought it went really well I had fun doing it. I think it showed when people came to see it,” said DiLucido.

“I thought the show was a lot of fun, [and] I thought the plot was interesting because it was fun how they rolled the dead guy,” said Chaudoin.

Misericordia Players include Christine E. Rock, Jack Mainwaring, Alan Waclawski, Judith Ann Curtis, Mary Ruth Burke, Jill Rafferty, Marianne Guarnieri, Rebecca Schaller, and Don Hopkins. The crew includes Brandi Brace, Matthew Buckman, Michael Caprio, Russell Heerkins, Jeff Kelly, George Pierce, Jackie Polito, Mary Scarpa, Browning Sterner, Brandi Brace, and Marie Stolarick.